Tale of Arcillana

Chapter 27

Cam’s Point of View:

I am here alone sitting on the sand while facing the vast of the ocean under a not so big tree. This place is near to where we played a volleyball earlier. The club house is too huge but this is not too far from where our cottage are. I just went out for a walking and my foot led me here.

I let out a deep sigh and closed my eyes. I let the wind flew my hair away. It feels great. I've been wanting this kind of moment where I can have a peace of mind. I am not stress at all but this past few days, there's a lot of happenings. I have been loaded. And having this weekend vacation helps me internalizing everything especially that people in the house were stressed already because of the current situation of the island.

The twins would just face their gadgets and stay there all along especially Dark. I would have gone crazy if I would just stay there and look at the chandelier in my room's ceiling. I could not just contact the three witches anytime I want to.

After we sang the song of Backstreet Boys, As Long As You Love Me earlier, I felt sudden uncomforting moment. Something awkwardness. I don't know why.

I didn't just left the venue but sang another song of Westlife, Uptown Girl to push that feeling away. Everyone sang along and even stood to dance because the music is lively and engaging. Well, except him.

"Why are you alone?" I turned to where that voice is coming from. He is walking towards me. He is in his Khaki short and short sleeve polo shirt. The upper buttons of his polo shirt was unbuttoned revealing his chest. I looked away and back my gaze at the ocean.

"Nothing. I just want to feel this moment. Cool breeze coming from the ocean. Why are you here? Where are the others?" I asked him back. He sat beside me and leaned his back on the three.

"The girls were asleep. While the two, they are probably hunting, you know." He said and chuckled.

"And you did not accompany them?" I asked while raising my left eyebrow as I looked at him. Boys will always want girls.

"Nope. I already found mine." He said and closed his eyes. He is probably referring to Margaux. I have heard a lot of gossip about the two of them. They said they have been dating for almost two years already but I do not understand why they are not still in a relationship when it is obvious that Margaux is into him. Is she playing a hard to get kind of girl? That does not suit her. It is very evident that she likes Nicolai so much. She even confronted me in the comfort room. As if I am going to be their third party. I am not a low class kind of person.

I stared at Nicolai's face while he is sleeping I guess. Well, I don't know if he is asleep but he seems like.

Nicolai has a fair skin. His eyebrows were thick and and his eyes just have a normal size, not big and not small. He have this pointed nose and a perfectly carved lips. He really is a good looking person. He is intelligent and he has authority. I guess he is a total package. Every girl in the campus were probably falling for him. Who would not be? He seems perfect. My eyes wandered down in his adams apple and I looked away when I saw how it moves.

I heaved a deep sigh and mentally scolded myself.

"Stop it Cam! You are obviously admiring him!"

I am not an in denial kind of person. I know myself well and I admit that I am indeed admiring him. The level of my admiration is the same level on how do I admire Christian back then. Nicolai maybe a jerk when I first met him but first impression does not always last because I believed, if you pays attention to what you have seen first to a person, you refused to know him or her more, you refused to know him or her better. So, let us not close our door for them and let them show us who really they are.

I have seen how good Nicolai is. The way he handles a situation, the way he leads a group, the way he makes his subordinate moves, the way he give his time just to assist and tutor me given the fact that he is also a busy person and the way he cared for other people. It was not that obvious but this past few days, he is the one I am with most of the time and I paid attention to him so I was able to know him a little bit. I even noticed his mannerism where he always touched his nose and make a sound using his fingers.

"You do have a lot in mind, don't you?" I faced him after saying that. Geez I thought he is asleep already. Good thing he does not caught me while staring at him that long. He would probably give a malice on it.

"Not really. I am just thinking of something." I replied.

"Something and not someone?" He asked that almost make me cough. What the hell is he thinking?

"What made you think that I was thinking of someone?" I asked again. He is not a mind reader, is he?

"Gut feels." He said and shrugged his shoulders. "What can you say about your life here in the island?" He asked all of the sudden. I do not know what is with him right now and he keeps on initiating a conversation through asking a questions. Usually I can just talk to him when I have something to ask or it is about the tutorial and student council related topics.

"It feels good. I still think of the island as so good to be true but the life here is amazing. It centers to the people and the people benefits a lot on the abundance of the island. However, I feel so incarcerated. Seems like we have delimited." I replied.

Well, that is true. You can just roam around the island and you cannot go into other places. They have gotten the chance to have freedom. There is also a life outside the island and that is one of the things they do not know. They did not have a chance to experience that kind of life.

"That is why you don't want to stay here?" He followed up. He have lots of questions now huh. So unlikely of him.

"Well, it is my decision to go back to Manila after two years even before I discover this kind of place. And yes, I do not want to imprisoned myself here. Arcillana must be abundant enough to support every citizen's needs nevertheless, there's a lot of opportunity also out there where you can discover yourself more and become independent. As for my perspective, although they, people of Arcillana worked hard for their benefits, I could still think that they depends on the council and the governing body of the island." I explained. They don't have their own source of income but rather work for their benefits when they could work for themselves.

"If given a chance that this island would be open to the world, will you stay?" He asked once again that made me confused. He sounded like hopeful. He is weird. I did not see it coming.

"Probably? This place is wonderful after all and everyone would wish to live here if given a chance." I replied. "You seem different today, are you okay?" I said. I even put the back of my palm at his forehead to check if he is having a fever but it is normal.

"I am drowning. And I do not have any plan of saving myself from it." He said while smiling. This is the first time I saw him smile like this so I immediately get my phone and open the camera.

"Hey what was that?" He said and get my phone.

"Remembrance, this is the first time I saw you smile. A genuine smile." I said and gave him the sweetest smile I could give. It is very rare for to smile like that. He is always in a poker face or being emotionless kind of image.

"Come on." He said and moved closer to me. I did not expect what he did. He set the camera in front and extended his arm for a selfie. He is fast and I could not track his movement because it was all of the sudden so the photo was like, I am intently looking at his smile.

"There," he said and give me back the phone He then helped himself up. He offered his hand to helped me and I accepted it. We get back to the cottage together.

Nicolai is the last person I think I could tolerate because of our first encounter. I really felt irritated towards him and that even went further when he gave me a warning without consideration on my first day of school. That somewhat ruined my day but I was able to get my revenge. I could still remember his reaction when I hit his future hard. I think that was the most epic face I saw in him.

"Yaaaaah! Why are you both holding each others hand? Where have you been? Did you went out for a date?" My eyes were widen when I realized that we really are holding each others hand. We both looked at our hands and yes, it was tangled together so I immediately untangled my hands from him. Nicolai also did the same.

"Ayieee. Are you having secret huh?" Alliah asked obviously teasing us. Thelonious came near Nicolai. He put his arm on Nicolai's shoulder while smiling from ear to ear. He whispered something on Nicolai and he suddenly hit his friend.

Mitch pulled my arm and brought me in the corner. Viper and Alliah followed us. are they going to interrogate me? Gosh. Why didn't I even realized that we are already holding hands?! Gosh Cam, your stupidity sometimes.

"Is Nicolai courting you or are you in a relationship already?" Mitch asked. Her mouth seems like a car with no break. You cannot stop her unless make it collide on something. She is waiting for my answer as well as Alliah and Viper.

"Nope. We happen to talk about Arcillana." I replied but that does not convinced them.

"Aww, I thought our ship is sailing. I think we should put an effort more to be their waves." Alliah said with a little disappointment. They are really serious on shipping me to Nicolai.

"Then why are you holding each others hand huh? When you talk is it necessary to hold each others hand?" Mitch asked. She is still not giving up. And the two seconded. They are giving malice to something that has no meaning.

"He helped me to stand and..."

"And?" They asked in unison. They really are paying attention to what I am going to say.

"And I think we both did not realized that we are already holding each others hand while walking back here." I said. Well that is true. If Mitch did not noticed it earlier, maybe we did not too.

"A natural course of action, isn't it?" Viper said meaningfully. And the two giggled.

"Hey stop that. I don't want to ruin relationship of others." I said.

"And whose relationship you are ruining?" Mitch asked.

"Margaux and Nicolai's relationship." I said.

"We told you already, they are not in relationship Cam. And believe us when we say, Nicolai does not have any romantic feelings for that bitch." Viper said. Yes, they told me already that but people around them kept on talking that Nicolai and Margaux are in a relationship.

"Please be honest with us, do you like Kade?" Alliah asked. I stared long at her because I do not know what to say. Do I like him? Or I just admire him? Like is another form of admiration but it involves one's feelings. Like is admiring someone romantically. Do I admire him that way?

"Silence means yes." Viper concluded. This is the first time I saw her with this kind of expression. She is usually composed and cold towards other people.

We proceeded to our room and continued there our topic. I told them also what happened between Nicolai and I during my first day of school and they burst into laughter because that was the very first time that someone did that to the great student council president. They said no one dares to lay a finger on him because he is Kade Nicolai Buenaventura known for being strict and authoritative leader.

After a while, we decided to change clothes. We are going to swim later. We have rented the whole pool already and this is just exclusive for us so we could enjoy.

Viper and Alliah wore their one piece swimsuit. They both have the same color which is black but has a different style. Viper’s swimsuit has a lace crossed from her waist up to the top. While Alliah’s wearing a swimsuit that has one side spaghetti strap. Mitch wear a two piece in white color. I also wore a burning red two piece swimsuit.

I put a see through blazer and also put my bloody red lip stick. I just let my cute hair there that completed my final look. I did not use any sunglasses because it is becoming dark.

After fixing everything, we decided to go out and look for the boys.

My heart beats fast again when my eyes were locked in his eyes.